Linguistic processes referenced by the morpheme database's etymology and composition entries.
Ainu permits zero-derivation: a root can switch grammatical category without overt morphology. Sato 2020 documents this as the principal kind of category conversion in Ainu — verbs alternate with nouns, nouns with relational nouns, intransitive verbs with adverbial expressions, and so on. The typical pattern is an intransitive verb (arity +1) being re-used as an abstract noun root: the verbal argument disappears in the noun reading, so we annotate the operation as −1 on the etymology chain (the verb-form chip carries +1; the resulting noun-form chip has no verbal arity). Examples: • nu (vi, +1) 'sense / hear' → nu (n) 'eye' (cf. nu-pe 'eye-water = tear', nu-kar 'eye-act-on = see') • itak (vi, +1) 'speak' → itak (n) 'word, speech, language' • kar (vt, +2) 'act on, make' → kar (n) used in compounds as 'thing made, deed' Reference: 佐藤2020アイヌ語における文法的カテゴリーの転換について — on the conversion of grammatical categories in Ainu.
Ainu uses reduplication in three shapes (アイヌ語と日本語 §4, p.206; 中川2024:204–208): • FULL (total) reduplication of the (C)V(C) root — iterative, distributive, or pluractional action: suye 'shake' → suysuye, kar 'roll (ideophone)' → karkar(-se), kik 'hit' → kikkik 'beat repeatedly'. The copy keeps the root's argument structure; a causative -ke / -e often follows (moymoyke 'fiddle with', yupyupu 'tighten hard'). • PARTIAL reduplication copying only the VC of a CVC root (the onset is dropped) — fine-grained, bit-by-bit continuative repetition: cirir 'drip, trickle'. • Final-syllable copy on a closed stem — the resulting state persists: hepoki 'lower the head' → hepokiki 'be keeping the head lowered'. Reduplicated ideophone bases feed the sound-symbolic system (with -se 'emit sound': see the grammar chapter). At the copy boundary sandhi applies (t+s→c: ketketcep 'tree frog' < *ket~ket-se-pe). References: 佐藤2008; 中川2024アイヌ語広文典 204–208; Shiraishi 2022 (phonology of the reduplicant); 田村すず子「アイヌ語と日本語」p.206; 坂口2021 アイヌ語のオノマトペ.
佐藤2008アイヌ文法の基礎中川2024アイヌ語広文典 204–208grammar.aynu.org: reduplication phonology
Most of the Ainu derivational machinery is overt affixation — productive prefixes and suffixes that modify a host's argument structure. These are shown directly in the synchronic Composition tree above the etymology frame; the etymology frame is reserved for analyses that are not transparent synchronically. Productive prefixes covered by the database: i- (indefinite object), e- (applicative 'about/with'), ko- (applicative 'to/toward'), si- (indirect reflexive), yay- (direct reflexive), u- (reciprocal). Productive suffixes: -e / -re / -te (causative, +1 causer), -yar / -ar (indefinite causative, arity-neutral), -pa (verbal plural). Reference: ブガエワ2014アイヌ語使役構文に関する再考察 for the causative system; 佐藤2007アイヌ語千歳方言の再帰接頭辞yayとsiについて for the reflexive prefixes.
A noun can be incorporated into a verbal predicate, usually saturating an internal argument slot and leaving a smaller external valency. The composition tree marks this as incorporation when a noun-like constituent combines tightly with a verbal head. Examples: • cep + koyki → cepkoyki 'catch fish' (fish is the incorporated patient) • aynu + koyki → aynukoyki 'attack people' • nu (n) + kar → nukar 'see' in the historical eye-act-on analysis This is morphological, not merely phonological: the internal noun changes the predicate's argument structure.
A predicate or clause can be turned into a noun with nominalising suffixes, especially -p / -pe. The database keeps the nominaliser distinct from the homophonous noun pe 'water'. Examples: • an + -pe → anpe 'the thing that exists; truth' • e + -p → ep / aep 'food, thing eaten' • e- + inkar + -pe → einkarpe 'thing one sees with; eye' • sapa-un + -pe → sapanpe 'thing on the head; ceremonial crown' The resulting lexeme may be a full dictionary word even though one of its parts is a bound suffix.
A full lexical item is reanalysed as a more grammatical / functional element while preserving phonological form. The synchronic verb keeps its lexical sense in independent use, but inside compounds it functions as a light verb or grammatical operator. We tag this on the etymology chain when a compound-internal use diverges semantically from the free-standing form. Example: • kar (vt, +2) 'act on, do to ~' in compounds (nu-kar 'see' = 'eye-act-on'; e-kar-pe 'thing-made') ← grammaticalisation ← kar (vt, +2) 'make, create' as an independent verb. The compound-internal kar has bleached from 'make/create' to a generic 'act on ~' operator. Reference: 佐藤2020アイヌ語における文法的カテゴリーの転換について for the broader phenomenon of category and meaning shift in Ainu.
Fusion is a phonological collapse of a transparent analytic stage into a shorter lexical form. It can create a dictionary word whose surface can no longer be recovered by simple concatenation. Fusion itself does not automatically change valency. Examples: • i- + nukar → *inukar → inkar: loss of medial /u/; the i- antipassive has already made the form intransitive (+1) • (ci= e) + -p → cep: the clitic+verb+nominaliser sequence contracts to the word 'fish' • sapa-un + -pe → sapanpe: the transparent 'be-on-head thing' sequence reduces to a lexical noun • paye + oka → payoka: plural 'go' + plural 'exist' becomes a lexicalised motion verb
Assimilation makes one sound more like a neighbouring sound. In the database this belongs mostly to morphophonology and dialectal sound-change notes, not to valency itself. Examples: • n + p / n + k sequences can show nasal place assimilation ([m] before p, [ŋ] before k) in phonetic descriptions • Sakhalin coda /r/ can assimilate before n/t/r; the comparative layer records pairs such as kor + -te → konte • cluster assimilation in eastern dialect descriptions includes patterns like tk → kk, pt → tt, rs → ss Use this tag when the important fact is neighbour-driven similarity, not deletion or fusion.
Dissimilation is the opposite tendency: similar nearby sounds become less similar, or an allomorph is chosen to avoid an overly confusable sequence. It is included as a tag so future curated analyses do not have to misuse 'assimilation' or 'fusion'. Current Ainu examples in the database are mostly contrastive diagnostics: moymoy is reduplication, not dissimilation; inkar is fusion, not dissimilation; ko- + i- forms with y-glide are epenthesis/coalescence, not dissimilation. Positive dissimilation claims should be added only when a source explicitly argues for that analysis.
Lenition weakens a segment: for example a consonant may debuccalise to h, become less constricted, or disappear. The comparative layer keeps this separate from assimilation because the output is weaker, not simply more similar to a neighbour. Examples: • Sakhalin word-final /r/ > h: utar → utah in western Sakhalin-type records • pre-consonantal /r/ > h is recorded in examples such as unarpe → unahpe • h-loss / weak h is handled as a historical sound-change issue rather than a synchronic morpheme boundary Use this tag for weakening, and 'vowel loss' for loss of vowels specifically.
Vowel loss removes an unstressed or morphophonologically weak vowel inside a word. In Ainu data it often interacts with fusion: the lost vowel is what makes the surface form shorter than the transparent composition. Examples: • *inukar → inkar loses medial /u/ • sapaunpe → sapanpe loses the medial vowel of the transparent sapa-un-pe stage • (ci= e)-p → cep contracts the ci/e sequence in the standard etymology of cep 'fish' When the result is a lexicalised word, the decomposition should keep both the surface word and the lost-vowel stage visible.
Epenthesis inserts a segment to repair a difficult boundary. In Ainu morphophonology the most visible cases are glide-like transitions at vowel or prefix boundaries. Examples: • ko- + i- + kar → koykar: y bridges ko- and the i-initial material • a= e- ipe -p → aeypep: the e+i boundary surfaces with y-like coalescence • o- + ipe + -p → oypep: o+i similarly produces an oy sequence These are phonological boundary repairs; the argument-structure effect still comes from the morphemes themselves.
Metathesis reorders sounds inside a lexical item or dialectal correspondence. Use it only for cited / lexicalised cases: many apparent reorderings are better analysed as ordinary affix scope plus fusion. Regular dialectal set: • -iw ↔ -uy in Bihoro/Kushiro-type forms: siwnin ~ suynin 'green', ciw ~ cuy 'stab', nociw ~ nocuy 'star', riwka ~ ruyka 'bridge'. Lexical examples: • askepet ~ aspeket 'finger' (Horobetsu); this is the clearest body-part example. • piyar / puyar ~ puray 'window', and nipek / nupek ~ nikep 'light'. • nuykes < niwkes 'cannot, be unable to finish'; oktus / ottusu < oksut 'nape, neck'; ponuyne < poniwne 'younger'; urumek < u-murek 'be/become a married couple'. • Contact-driven case: ratcaku 'lamp' appears in Sakhalin as cahraku by metathesis of initial r. Uncertain candidates stay out of the main inventory unless a source explicitly labels them. For example, siompuray < siyom-puyar is cited with a question mark, so it is useful evidence but not a hard rule.
A borrowing enters Ainu from another language and therefore resists any Ainu-internal analysis — the etymology chain points at a foreign form instead of native morphemes. A calque is the opposite arrangement: native morphemes assembled on a foreign model. The claim is graded like any other link, and the donor form carries its language tag on the chip. Examples: • notak 'blade' ⇐ Koreanic *nʌt(ʌ)k (Middle Korean nolh 날 '刃'); absent from Old Japanese, so read as direct Koreanic–Ainu contact. A competing account (朝克 2001) compares Evenki kotaku~kotak '刃物' as a shared noun with n :: k onsets. • menoko 'woman' ⇐ Japanese めのこ【女の子】. • matnepo 'daughter' = mat-ne-po 'woman-COP-child', fully analyzable — but suspected to be a calque on the めのこ 女-GEN-子 model (the model word itself entered Ainu as menoko).
朝克2001アイヌ語とエヴェンキ語の伝統的共有名詞についてまくぽり2024日本語からアイヌ語に入った借用語notak family